PDC: Microsoft opens Surface to developers

Los Angeles — At this week’s Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft is giving a broad group of developers the ability to create applications for its Surface tabletop computer for the first time.

A Surface at AT&T

So far, deployment of the Surface computer has been limited, as have been the number of applications created for it.

(One application used at the Harrah’s casino in Las Vegas allows users sitting around a Surface computer to send flirtatious messages to each other. Another allows users to order mixed drinks.

An application designed for AT&T lets phone shoppers place phones on the Surface and then see the phone’s specifications on the screen.)

But the company has large ambitions for the Surface, and in an interview, Brad Carpenter, general manager of the Microsoft Surface team, said Microsoft had targeted five areas for the computer and therefore for applications: entertainment, healthcare, banking, automotive and retail.

“We really want to tap into developers to get their creativity to think about what is the killer app,” he said.

Carpenter said that for now only 1,200 developers would be able to download the Surface’s software development kit.

“This is a new product for us,” he said. “We want to make sure we get it right.”